Eugenia Mykuliak
Founder and Executive Director at B2PRIME Group
Eugenia, you have over a decade of experience building financial infrastructure and now leading B2PRIME as Founder & Executive Director. Looking back, what have been the key milestones in your career that shaped your approach to leadership in finance?
I started in fintech over ten years ago, when this industry was still in the process of finding its shape. There were no ready-made playbooks, so I often had to rely on intuition and sheer persistence to move forward. That period taught me how to see challenges as opportunities even in the midst of uncertainty.
A big turning point came when I joined a major financial infrastructure firm in its early days, as I had the chance to help build its operations from the ground up. Later, when I stood at the helm of B2PRIME, I took the lessons learned there and focused on creating a company that could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest market players and not be found lacking.
The experience taught me how important it is to balance ambition with discipline. And that leadership isn’t just about having a vision for your company—you also need proper structure in order to reach that vision and bring it into reality.
Since you touched on the topic of vision, what would you say have been the most defining challenges you faced as a woman founder? Since finance is traditionally seen as a male-dominated industry, how did that affect your sense of ambition?
When I first began my career, it didn’t take long to notice how finance was—and still largely is—a male-dominated industry. That fact was challenging in and of itself, because as a woman, I often had to put extra effort into proving my competence again and again before being taken seriously.
Even after I founded B2PRIME, it took a while before this state of things truly started to change. There were still moments where people’s initial perception of me was shaped less by my position and more by old stereotypes. But instead of treating this as an obstacle, I learned to see it as motivation.
It pushed me to stay focused on delivering consistent, high-quality results. And I have come to the understanding that the most effective way to earn recognition as a woman in finance isn’t by arguing with pre-established perceptions. It is far more important to demonstrate through your work that professionalism and success have little to do with gender.
That’s a powerful point about stereotypes running deep. From your perspective, why is the leadership gap persisting? What barriers still need to be broken to change that?
Finance has long carried the image of being “a man’s world.” And even though that belief has grown outdated a long time ago, and women have gradually gained the ability to step into that world, the double standards they had to deal with still persist today.
On top of that, while women were able to break out of the “housewife” mold, they still shoulder the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities. This, in turn, clashes with the long hours and pressures that come with working in a field as intense as finance.
Without flexible structures that would allow them to balance home and work, many women end up pausing their growth. And yet when they choose to shift focus to caring for their families, it serves to reinforce the idea that women are unreliable workers unfit for the industry. As if the responsibilities they choose instead are any less worthy of recognition.
In my eyes, the real challenge is to break out of this cycle and normalise policies that allow women to thrive without sacrificing their personal commitments.
And how can that be done, do you think? What should companies do differently to create a more inclusive workplace culture and leadership pipelines?
The most important thing is for the inclusivity agenda to come directly from the top. The company leadership has to think about these matters and set the right tone for the whole organisation. When senior executives lead by example, inclusivity becomes part of the company’s DNA until nobody even thinks about it twice.
If we speak in terms of specific measures that can be taken, building mentorship programs that promote female leadership and investing in flexible work policies are all crucial things. I already mentioned earlier how such steps can help support a woman’s career journey.
Equitable parental leave is also a powerful tool to include—it creates fairness and removes a silent barrier that’s been holding women back for decades. If caregiving responsibilities are seen as primarily a woman’s issue, then women will always be judged as “less committed” to their careers. But changing this part of the company culture gives both parents the chance to balance work and personal life.
Finally, if you were to give a word of advice to the next generation of young women entering finance and fintech today, what would it be?
Don’t let the feeling of being outnumbered intimidate you. Yes, there are fewer women in leadership today, but that doesn’t mean there’s no space for you to fill.
Focus on building your own personal competencies, even if it takes time. When you feel that you genuinely know what you’re talking about, it becomes that much easier to maintain a confident attitude.
Above all, remember that gaining a seat at the leadership table isn’t just about fitting into an old mould left behind by someone else. It’s about reshaping it to fit your own self. And this industry needs more women willing to do just that.
